Stanford - Piano Quartet No.2 & Piano Trio No.1

Charles Villers STANFORD (1852-1924)

Piano Quartet No. 2 

Piano Trio No. 1 

Legend 

Irish Fantasies 

Gould Piano Trio

Lucy Gould (Violin); Alice Neary (Cello); Benjamin Frith (Piano)

David Adams (Viola)

The First Piano Trio… remained dormant until the present recording and a performance by the same forces in 2010. The manuscript has been edited by Jeremy Dibble, who also provides the authoritative notes.

…no one who buys this CD—which deserves to be a bestseller—is likely to conclude that Stanford himself had failed to deliver. Furthermore, while Stanford’s use of first-movement sonata form in his symphonies always retained a certain academic correctness—and in fact he gradually abandoned the symphony in favour of the Irish Rhapsody for his major orchestral statements—he allowed himself a more inventive approach to form in his chamber music.

Stanford seems to have been particularly impressed by Brahms’s device, in his Fourth Symphony…The first movement of the First Piano Trio is not the only occasion when Stanford adopted this technique, but manipulating it entirely for his own purposes. In effect, the movement becomes three statements—rather than a first statement, a development and a restatement. The second statement is the most varied, the third statement closer to the original one. Brahms’s symphonic growth is thereby replaced by a finely controlled rhapsody in which Stanford’s lyrical gifts flower freely.

The second movement is a charming intermezzo.

The previous recording of the First Piano Trio, coupled with the First Piano Quartet, was by the Pirasti Trio (ASV CD DCA 1056)… while the three players of the Pirasti Trio are excellent musicians, and so are the string players of the Gould Piano Trio, Benjamin Frith is something more. He is the sort of exceptionally gifted artist who gives a clear profile, a sense of character and a meaning to everything he plays. At times a theme, first heard on the strings and very nicely handled, assumes its full flowering when Frith takes it up. He is, however, too good a musician to deliberately outplay his colleagues and his presence tends to inspire rather than dwarf them. All the same, the Gould performance is a little more piano-led than the Pirasti one. Only time will tell if I find myself listening to one more than the other. For the moment I am just delighted that this major work now has two recordings fully worthy of it.

The “Legend”, to which Stanford did not even attach an opus number, shows what treasures can sometimes emerge from the more unsuspected corners of his output. Lucy Gould plays it with a sense of self-communing that is highly attractive.

The “Six Irish Fantasies” were written for Lady Hallé, who often played them. The opening page of the “Jig” sounds like a blueprint for all the folksy finales written over the next couple of generations by the likes of Holst and Moeran.

“Hush Songs”, as the Irish call their lullabies, figure largely in Stanford’s output. Such was the resourcefulness, inventiveness and technical variety…that it would be instructive rather than monotonous to hear all 17 of these pieces one after the other. When played with the sensitivity of a Benjamin Frith, the result is magical indeed. Lucy Gould again adopts a introverted manner which might seem rather small on the concert platform. Her first note is almost inaudible even on disc. More important, however, is the real sensitivity and affection for the music she shows.

The Second Piano Quartet opens with a slow introduction. The furrow-brows soon give way to a chorale with rippling piano accompaniment that transports us straight into the Irish hills.

The finale…performance is completely convincing, concluding an essential disc for anyone interested in romantic chamber music, and I don’t just mean British romantic chamber music. Hopefully, the Gould Piano Trio will now give us the Second Piano Trio in a more measured performance to supplant the over-hasty Pirasti version.

We used to be told that Stanford was only good—if at all—at writing miniatures. As larger works emerged from oblivion we were warned that he was very uneven, only a few things could be saved from his laborious over-production. Funny, then, that now we can hear all his music for piano and two or more strings, and all six pieces have turned out to be fine and rewarding works.